Mike Heika, SportsDayDFW.com's Stars beat writer, answered questions about the team in a chat Tuesday. Some excerpts:

Question: I wasn't terribly impressed with Aaron Rome last season. But do you think he could make a positive impact on the Stars' blueline once his conditioning assignment in Cedar Park is over? With whom would you pair him and whom do you sit out from the current starting six d-men?

Mike Heika: He is a big body and a defensive presence, and the team could use that. In a perfect world, he would probably play with either Goligoski or Gonchar to give them an anchor, but the guess is he goes in with Trevor Daley, and then Jordie Benn comes out. When you look at this group of defensemen, it is hard to find great pairings, so you have sympathy for the coaching staff.

Question: I was curious how you feel Eakin is doing as the #2 center. IMO he's been OK, but I wonder if Peverly would be able to generate some more offense from their second line.

Mike Heika: It's certainly an option. I think Erik Cole has fine on the top line, so the Stars could better use Peverley as a center and possibly push Eakin down to a line with Nichushkin, something that could help Nichuskin (with Roussel on the wing, that could be an interesting line). I also have a weird theory that you could break up Benn and Seguin, move Seguin to the Whitney-Chiasson line and have Peverley center Benn and Cole, but it's just something I was messing around with. Then, you could put Benn-Peverley-Cole against the other team's top line and maybe get some freedom for Whitney-Seguin-Chiasson. I don't think that will happen, I think the Peverley to the second line option is more realistic. That said, it doesn't appear that Lindy Ruff wants to change anything right now, so we'll wait and see.

Question: During the draft, I proposed the idea of trading both Stars 1st rounders, first 2nd round pick and a player or prospect for McKinnon, Drouin or Jones. Some said that this was foolishly too much. In retrospect, I believe it probably wasn't enough. So you think Jones or McKinnon would have been worth the price?

Mike Heika: Time will tell, as always on these drafts. Nichushkin is going to be a longer-term project, just because of everything he has to deal with, so you have to accept that. The Stars seem pretty happy with Nichushkin and they really have good feelings about Jason Dickinson, so they seem happy with how it turned out. That said, I think adding a player like Seth Jones would have been the perfect fit for Dallas, and I do think his impact (both short-term and long-term) would help this organization more than anyone else who was available in the draft, in part because of his position and his skillset. Had you been able to pull a trade for Jones, I do think that would have been worth it.

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